Chapter - 10 Shocking Events In the Blizzard (10)

Right now, seeing this man lying in the snow about to die, her kind heart started to act up. Even though she clearly knows that this man is not good, she can't just watch him bleed and freeze to death. She hesitated for only a second before running back to the house to discuss this with her husband. But Yang Tiexin was deep in his sleep because of the wine, no matter what she did, he wouldn't wake up.

Figuring that she save the person first and then worry about the rest, she took out her husband's blood clotting powder that stops bleeding. Grabbing the small dagger, some pieces of cloth, and half a kettle of warm wine that was on the stove, she ran back to behind the grave. That man was still lying on the ground, not moving. Bao Xiruo helped him sit up and slowly poured what's left of the wine in the kettle into his mouth. She has been taking care and curing animals ever since she was little, so she has a little bit of medical knowledge. The arrow has embedded itself deep inside of him, pulling it out might cause blood to shoot out of him and kill him. But if the arrow isn't pulled out, there will be no way to start taking care of the wound. So she gritted her teeth, cut open the flesh around the wound using the dagger, grabbed a hold of the arrow shaft, and gave one hard pull. The man let out a savage scream and passed out. Blood shot out of the wound as Bao Xiruo's shirt was covered with little specks of blood, but that arrow had finally been pulled out.

Bao Xiruo's heart was beating like crazy as she anxiously and hurriedly applied the blood clotting powder onto the wound and firmly bandaged it with the pieces of cloth. After a while, that man slowly began to come around, just that he's too weak and tired to even make a sound.

Bao Xiruo had been scared to the point that there is no way for her to gather up enough strength to help move this man. Suddenly an inspiration came to her, she went back home and grabbed a door plank. She dragged the man onto the door plank and then pulled the door plank along the snow, as if she was pulling a sled. She pulled him back into the house and set him up in the barn. After being fully occupied for so long, only now did she get the chance to calm down. She switched out of the bloodied shirt and washed her hands and face. She poured out a bowl unfinished chicken soup, grabbed a stick of candle, and went to the barn once again to check on that man. When she arrived, that man's breathing was weak but steady. Bao Xiruo felt a little better and started feeding him the chicken soup. That man drank down half a bowl before suddenly breaking out with a violent coughing fit.

Startled, Bao Xiruo held up the candle for a closer look. Under the candle light, she saw the man's delicate features and rather high nose bridge. Turns out he was actually a very handsome young man. Her face suddenly heated up and her left hand shook, disturbing the candle holder and several drops of wax fell onto the man's face.

That man opened his eyes. In front of him was a face as beautiful as a flower, cheeks blushing red, and eyes like twinkling stars, filled with both sympathy and bashfulness. It was as if this was a dream as he couldn't help but become spellbound.

Bao Xiruo whispered, "Feeling any better? Here, drink the rest of this bowl of soup." That man tried to take the bowl in his hands, but he had no strength in his hands whatsoever and almost spilled it all on himself. Bao Xiruo immediately grabbed the bowl back. At this time the most important thing is to save a life, so she fed him the soup little by little.

After drinking all of the soup, that man's eyes slowly gained back some life. He stared at her, obviously grateful beyond words. But Bao Xiruo was getting embarrassed by the stare. So she grabbed some straw, put it on him to keep him warm, and went back into the house with the candle.

She did not sleep well at all for the rest of the night for she had several nightmares in a row. Suddenly she would see her husband spearing that man to death. But then she would see that man killing her husband with a sabre and then start to chase her, she was surrounded by darkness and had no where to run or hide. Several times she was scared awake by her dreams, covered with cold sweat. When she woke up in the morning, her husband had already gotten up. Seeing him grinding the spear head of his spear, her dreams last night came rushing back into her mind. She anxiously made her way to the barn and pushed open the door. Even more startling, there was nobody in the barn, only a messed up pile of straws. The man had disappeared.

She ran to the backyard and noticed the backdoor was only half-closed. The snow showed the traces of someone crawling and rolling toward the west. She stared at the traces and became lost in her thoughts. After a long while, a gust of wind came in right at her face as she suddenly felt her waist go sore and bones go soft. Sleepy, she walked back to the main room. Yang Tiexin had already made some porridge and put them on the table. Smiling, he said, "See, my porridges aren't that bad after all." Bao Xiruo knows that her husband is being even more considerate because of her condition. So she smiled, sat down, brought up the bowl, and started to eat the porridge. She figured that if she told her husband about what happened last night, he would be jealous and angry and would no doubt chase the man down and kill him. Then is that not the same as killing the man? So she decided to never mention it at all.

Winter ended and Spring returned. In a blink of an eye several months had passed. Bao Xiruo's waist slowly got bigger as she slowly began to feel more and more weary and tired. And the incident of that night when she saved a man gradually disappeared from her memory.

On this particular day, the Yang family had just finished dinner and Bao Xiruo was sitting by the lamp as she was working on sewing a new pair of trousers for her husband. Yang Tiexin was hanging up the two pairs of straw sandals he just finished on the wall. Remembering that he broke the head of the plough while working in the fields earlier that day, he turned to Bao Xiruo and said, "The head of the plough is broken. Tomorrow I'll go to Zhang MuEr on the east side of the village and have him add a bit of iron and take care of it." Bao Xiruo replied, "Alright." Yang Tiexin looked at her and said, "I have enough clothing already. Your body is weak and is carrying a baby, you should rest as much as you can. Don't worry about making clothes for me anymore." Bao Xiruo turned her head towards him and smiled, but her hands did not stop. Yang Tiexin walked over and gently took the needle and thread out of her hands. Only now did Bao Xiruo let out a yawn, blow out the lamp, and went to bed.

At midnight, Bao Xiruo was suddenly snapped out of her dream by the sound of her husband sitting up. Faint sounds of hoof beats could be heard coming from very far away. The sound came from the west, after a while, hoof beats started coming from the east as well, followed by sounds coming from north and south. Bao Xiruo sat up and asked, "How come there are horses in all 4 directions?" Yang Tiexin jumped out of the bed and started to put on cloths. Soon, the hoof beats were getting closer from all 4 directions and the dogs in the villages started to bark. Yang Tiexin replied, "We are surrounded!" Shocked, Bao Xiruo asked, "What for?" Yang Tiexin replied, "Don't know." He handed the dagger that Qiu Chuji gave him to his wife and said, "Take this, to protect yourself!" He took down a spear on the wall and firmly held it in his hands.